All the other foals were all suspicious like. They were watching Applebloom more intently than they were their teacher. They hardly said anything to her the whole day so far!
But now it was lunch and lunch meant a chance to win them over! But given how things were going so far, Applebloom was maybe just a little less than a hundred percent sure she’d become instant best friends with everypony now.
There were only seven other foals in the third grade and right now they were sitting in a group of three and a group of four. Dinky was the only one she remembered the name of, was in the group of three, but also Dinky was a little scary.
“Applebloom.” Dinky beckoned to her before Applebloom could decide where to sit.
At least she had an excuse to go over there now. She kept her ears down and trotted to them, still unsure whether her fist meeting with Dinky went well or not.
Dinky Hooves was sitting on a stack of three cushions giving her just enough height to look down on Applebloom. The other two, Applebloom had trouble with names now, were sitting on either side of her on the floor, close enough that the three were pressed together.
Applebloom could tell her skull was a lot thicker now, but she still managed to jam a few things through it all the same. One of them was that in any group of these vampires, there was always a very clear boss. And it could just be her new instincts going crazy, but Applebloom knew in her gut the second she walked in that Dinky was the head vampire among the fillies.
As if Dinky being some kind of super genius wasn’t intimidating enough.
“My cohorts are Scootaloo and Rumble.” Dinky didn’t bother gesturing to them. “And your name is Applebloom.”
“Okay.” Applebloom did appreciate being reminded. The other two likely needed reminding too.
“I’ve surveyed all the other foals in our grade. After extensive deliberation I have reached the following conclusion.” Dinky opened her eyes and looked down at Applebloom. “It is hypothetically possible for us to be friends you.”
“Oh! Well that’s swell!” Applebloom swung her hoof. “I was worried for a second there.”
“However!” Dinky interrupted. “Because you used to be a daywalker, you must prove your loyalty to the darkness and Princess Luna. Divulge to us the secrets beyond the veil of light in compromise of where you came and we’ll accept you. Refuse and your friendship is forfeit.”
“Divulge the what now?” Applebloom tilted her head.
“We want you to answer a bunch of questions about Equestria!” Scootaloo spat it out. “Geez, Dinky! Saying all these big words doesn’t make you sound smarter! It just makes nopony understand you.”
Dinky sighed at that comment but was back to being serious a moment later.
“What’s your answer?” Dinky asked. “Will you join us?”
“Yeah!” Applebloom quickly nodded, eager to accept a way in. “I can totally do that! I’ll tell ya anything you wanna know!”
“Have you ever seen Celestia kill somepony?” Rumble asked right away. “Spur said she burns them to dust and sucks up the ashes with a straw!”
“Uh- no? I never seen her kill anypony, anyway.”
“Do you really go to jail for hugging?” Scootaloo asked. Already she was slowly walking closer to Applebloom.
“Nah. It’s just- we don’t like it as much as y’all seem to.”
“Why would you worship an evil god instead of Luna?” Dinky asked.
“I didn’t even know Luna existed till like, a little bit ago.” Applebloom shrugged. “And you know, I never really liked going to church either. Mostly just went cause I was supposed to?”
To her relief, Dinky nodded and considered the answer.
The three of them were over their nervousness towards Applebloom already. They were up close now, surrounding Applebloom and looking her over with curiosity.
“What does the sun look like?” Scootaloo jumped off her box, getting on the same level as Applebloom.
“Oh! Well it’s like a giant fireball?” Applebloom tried hard
“Ah, come on,” Scootaloo complained. “Everypony says that, but you used to stare at it all day long, right? You must have something interesting to say about it! Did you really like the feeling of being burned alive?”
“Well, first off you can’t stare into it [i]all[/i] day,” Applebloom explained. “Your eyes’d get hurt.”
“Really?” Scootaloo’s eyes widened, suddenly impressed. “Even as a daywalker?”
“Uh, huh! We call it the seven second rule. That’s how long you can stare into the sun before you start going blind.”
The three of them muttered to each other after that one, Rumble repeating ‘seven second rule’ under his breath.
“Actually,” Applebloom went on with increasing confidence, “daywalkers do kinda get burned by the sun too. It just takes a while. It feels nice at first but you stay out too long and your skin gets all red and hot and it hurts for days!”
Dinky nodded eagerly as Applebloom explained this, was listening to with deadly focus, more than she’d given their teacher just minutes ago. Applebloom quickly tried to think of more things to share with them. What else was different in Equestria.
“In Equestria, the grass is green and the water is crystal clear instead of blue like everything is down here.”
“Wah.” All three of them had their own version of amazement.
This was going great!
“We only have black and white movies of Equestria!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “I never would have guessed that!”
“Yeah! And during the day? The sky? It turns blue!”
“No way!” Rumble decided that was too much for him. “The daywalker’s messing with us.”
“Nah, it’s true! The sky goes from red to blue then back to red.” Applebloom swept her hoof across the sky in imitation of the sun.
“That would make sense.” Dinky pondered the situation. “Refraction.”
“Exactly! Re-fraction. Everypony in Equestria knows about refraction. Why it’s practically all we talk about.”
And the broke Rumble’s skepticism. He went back to whispering with Scootaloo in amazement.
“Impressive,” said Dinky. “I always heard ponies in Equestria don’t believe in science, that science and learning are restricted there.”
“I really like school down here a lot better. Back in Equestria, they make you watch the same couple of PSAs a million times and you gotta repeat stuff over and over. I also like that I’m allowed to watch any movie I want down here! And you can read whatever book you want too!”
“Those who turn their backs on Luna will inevitably turn their backs on science, reason and freedom.” Dinky nodded. “That’s what my dad says, anyway.”
Applebloom was less sure how to respond to that one, but decide she should just go along with whatever for now.
“Praise Luna, right?”
Applebloom should have praised Luna from the start, cause everypony seemed to really like that line!
“You’re one of the good ones,” Dinky conclude. “You should sit with us from now on.”
“Really?” Applebloom’s eyes lit up! She actually pulled it off.
“Yeah, but we’re gonna say you’re 42 from now on,” Scootaloo concluded, giving her a pat on the shoulder. “That way we’re not running around with some baby teenager.”
“Sure! I can be 42! Or 43 even!”
“And we don’t talk to the foals from South Side.” Rumble came in close on her other side. The two of them were standing so close that they were actually touching her shoulder to shoulder. “They smell bad and they’re all total weirdos!”
Applebloom scrunched her nose up at the others getting so close. Ponies down here sure were touchy-feely! Maybe she’d ask them to keep three feet away later, but didn’t want to bring it up in the middle of getting accepted.
“Well, like-“ Applebloom looked around awkwardly. “They ain’t around anyway so I suppose that’s no problem.”
“They’ll be around near new years,” Dinky warned. “But don’t say anything to them or things will be weird.”
“Uh. Okay?”
“Excellent.” Dinky nodded.
And a moment later Dinky lead Applebloom back to her table. Applebloom was totally in!
“See, I knew you weren’t evil,” Scootaloo bragged. “Cause Pinkie’s super nice and if you’re I her family you gotta be nice too.”
“Thanks, but Pinkie’s not in my family,” said Applebloom. “It’s just Applejack and Big Mac.”
“Huh? I’m a hundred percent sure Pinkie is in Rarity’s family,” said Scootaloo.
“It’s like in that movie we watched,” Dinky told her. “Equestrians only consider their parents and foals to be family. Nopony else. Isn’t that right?”
“Not exactly. You got your uncles and grandmas and cousins too.”
“Really.” Dinky thought about that. “Then where exactly is the cutoff point? You’re a blood relative of everypony at some point.”
“I guess it depends on how much you like them?” Applebloom shrugged.
“I see,” said Dinky. “Well here your family is your head mare and everypony else under her. Your family is Rarity and those loyal to hers. The three of us and our parents are all under Night Glider. Most of the other third graders are in Moonlight Raven’s family. Do you understand?”
“I think so.”
“I’ll explain again later.”
“Thanks.” Applebloom knew she’d need it.